Park board looks at 2013 projects

Maintenance coordinator Mike Anderson shows members of the Princeton Park District Board the new furnace installed for heating the swimming pool at the Bureau County Metro Center. The new furnace replaces a furnace which was about three years old and too small to do the necessary job. The new furnace has been relocated to an adjacent room for better climate control.

PRINCETON — Lighting upgrades, parking lot improvements and tree planting projects are just three of the several dozen projects on the 2012-13 projects list for the Bureau County Metro Center and the parks within the Princeton Park District.

At Monday’s park board meeting, Princeton Park Board Executive Director Elaine Russell and Superintendent of Parks Keith Scherer presented the prioritized lists, saying the lists are only guidelines. Not all the projects will be completed if other things come up and need more immediate attention. Also, some projects are dependent upon the cooperation of the weather, Scherer said.

Among the projects for the Metro Center for the 2013 year are overlay and patch work for the parking lot as well as lighting upgrades at the main swimming pool and wading pool, reconditioning bollard lighting and replacing building wash lighting and exterior door lighting. Other projects include removing two oak trees and brush that came down during last year’s storms in the woods on the Metro Center property as well as additional landscaping work on the property.

At City-County Park, projects include moving 20 trees from the nursery at the park to other district parks, maintaining the gravel shoulder area throughout the park, and continued upgrade work on the large shelter.

At West Side Park, proposed projects include widening the area by the entrance gate with a sidewalk and removing the chain gate, replacing two or more of the original electric poles on the smaller diamond, and replacing the wooden fence to the east of the shop building and removing dead mulberry trees in the fence row.

At Alexander Park, projects include culvert/drainage work through the front of the park, replacing the wooden footbridge going to the shelter and installing a walk path to the shelter, and installing a gate and chain link fence at the entrance area.

Among the projects for Zearing Park, they include seal coating the walk path, planting new trees and replacing the metal roof on the older portion of the shop building.

Some of the projects can be done in-house, while other projects will be contracted to outside companies, Russell said.

In other business at Monday’s meeting, Mike Anderson, maintenance coordinator for the Metro Center, gave a tour of the pool pit area in the lower level of the Metro Center where a new pool heater has been installed. The new heater replaces a smaller heater which was about three years old and was determined to be not large enough for the needed work.

Anderson said the new heater is more efficient and runs about four hours a day, compared to eight hours a day for the old heater, resulting in a gas savings for the park district. The new heater has been placed in a separate, more climate-controlled area where moisture will not be as much of a problem as before with the old heater.

Anderson said he hopes to get 15 years out of the new heater. The $15,000 cost of the new heater has been spread over two budget years, he said.